Monday, July 15, 2013

Don't Be a Dope

I have been working my way through a book my favorite monk,
Thomas Merton, wrote near the end of his career.The
Springs of Contemplation reads almost like a transcript of a retreat Merton
offered for a small group of nuns at a convent near Merton’s monastery in
Kentucky.This little book reads like a
conversation.We are able to see the
kind of question one of the nuns would have posed and, then, we are able to see
how Merton responded.I find most of the
information interesting, although some of it is too narrowly focused on life at
the monastery to be of much use in my own life in the real world.

At one juncture, a nun asked a question about contemplative
prayer.Both Merton’s monastery and the
convent were “contemplative” communities.That means their monastic intent was to live life as much as possible within
the Presence of God.At least with this
definition of contemplation, I also can live contemplatively.However, it won’t be in the context of the
monastery.My context is a family, a
college community and a group of friends.Contemplative prayer can be a part of my life, just as it was for Merton
and the nuns.

So the question to Merton---how to teach contemplative
prayer---was not an usual request.In
fact, I find it an interesting question.I also would have been quite intrigued with how he would answer that
one.However, Merton began to answer it
in an unusual way.By the end I had to
laugh.And maybe that was the point!

So, Merton, how do you teach contemplative prayer?Merton answers us in this fashion.“Well, there’s got to be a completely
Zen-like approach.When you ask a Zen
master, ‘What is the meaning of Zen?’ he hits you over the head, or something
like that, and then leaves you to think about it for a while.Under no circumstance will you ever get a
lecture on Zen.”

In the next paragraph Merton leaves the Zen example and
shifts to a story about a Sufi master, a real master who had visited Merton’s
monastery, Gethsemani.One of the
zealous monks at Gethsemani asked the Sufi master, “How do you attain union
with God?’We are told, “The Sufi just
laughed and said, ‘We don’t answer questions like that.’”

These were both good questions, I thought, so why did Merton
laugh them off with the Zen and Sufi story?I would like to know about contemplative prayer.And surely, I would like to know how to
attain union with God.Why not answer
them, I wondered?

It was in the next paragraph that Merton helped me see his
point.Again, Merton does it with a bit
of a laugh, but he simultaneously makes a great point.Merton offers this insight.“Zen people stress the fact that if you
weren’t such a dope, you’d know that you are united to God, that God is already
that close.” I had to laugh.I guess I am a dope!If I were not a dope, I would know that I
already am united to God.

After laughing at myself, I realized Merton’s “answer” was
not surprising.It makes perfect sense
that we are already united to God.Let
me explain why I think this is true (now that I have it pointed it out me).

We are already united to God simply because we are
alive.As I understand the Divinity, God
is the very Presence of everything that is present.God is the Being that surrounds, supports and
nurtures our being---nourishing the very possibility of the life of every one
of us.For me that is a truth---a
given.The real question for me is not
whether it is true.The real question is
whether I know it?In most instances the
answer is No.No, I don’t know it.

In my mind I differentiate my being from the Being that
Holds me and my life.When I
differentiate myself from God the Being who Holds me, then I can forget that
God.I begin to assume I am
independent---that I am on my own.When
I get to this place, I have no sense of being united with God.I have become an individual---on my own in a
world and trying to make my own way.

This forgetting the Buddhists call “ignorance.”I have become ignorant of my own
truth---which is God’s Truth.When I am
in this place, then I begin to wonder how to practice contemplative prayer so
that I can be united with God?I laugh
again.Practicing prayer is good.In fact, it can be a wonderful way of
“remembering.”

One way to see contemplative prayer is to understand it as
“practicing the Presence of the Holy One.”As I practice this, I begin to live more and more into the realization
that I already am united to this Holy One.I laugh again.It actually is
simple.But I have made it so hard.Then I recall Merton’s words: Don’t be a
dope!